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T O P I C R E V I E W

ASF1984

Apollo 15 astronaut Col. Al Worden kicks off the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's (ASF) Astro Chat Program and wants to hear from you! So think of what you would ask a man who's been to the Moon and post your questions here by 8:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow, March 25.

Al M. Worden served as Command Module pilot on the 1971 Apollo 15 moon mission, during which he orbited the moon and took a space walk 200,000 miles from Earth...

Worden will answer as many as possible via video which will be posted here and on ASF's website.

nasamad

If you could have flown one other mission as well as Apollo 15 which one would it have been, and why?

Adam Bootle

4allmankind

What a great idea, thanks for doing this!

Unfortunately, Jim Irwin passed before ever having the chance to meet fans the at Autograph shows and events that you do.

I would love to ask Col. Worden if he and Jim kept in touch after A15 through the early 1990's? Would he care to share any stories or thoughts about Irwin, the man, not the astronaut?

Jason Rubin

dabolton

Astronauts have described the smell of space as being similar to gunpowder. What was the smell of the moon like when Scott and Irwin opened the hatch.

spaced out

Jim Irwin related in "To Rule the Night" (see this extract from the book) that he and Scott accidentally failed to transfer the LM PPKs prior to jettison.

The Flag Kit, which was used by NASA to produce flown flag presentations to foreign & US dignitaries post-flight, was also stowed in the LM at launch but not explicitly mentioned by Irwin. I've seen at least one official NASA flown flag presentation that identified the flag as lunar surface flown, which would tend to imply that the flag kit was transferred.

Does Col. Worden happen to remember if this was actually transferred or was it lost along with the PPKs?

Chris Spain

spaced out

As completely hypothetical question:

Apollo 18 was given the green light and Col. Worden was chosen as Commander. Who would he have chosen as his LMP and CMP, and why?

Chris Spain

P.S. We'll assume Scott and Irwin were not available, so it had to be someone he didn't actually fly with.

Rob Joyner

Col. Worden, who were your childhood heroes and which one did you most admire?

Thanks!Rob Joyner

Paul23

Is there any one incident or set of circumstances that you would consider had the greatest influence on your career?

Paul Gates

Paul23

Not sure if it's cheating to add a second question but here goes:

Does Col. Worden have any reminicinces about the people or places he remembers from his time at the Empire Test Pilots School in Farnborough when he was based there?

MarylandSpace

Which high school teacher had a great influence on your life?

rjurek349

I agree: great idea!

My Q: What are your thoughts/comments about your solar corona photographs? Were you surprised by the results? The observations and photography from Apollo's 8, 10, 15, 16 & 17 have lead, in part, to the upcoming NASA LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) mission in 2013. I've seen Col. Worden's dramatic coronal photos, and wonder what his thoughts were of that experience.

Rich

Fezman92

How does he feel about the fact that they don't teach about Mercury, Gemini and Apollo in US schools?

Thanks!

David Cohen

KSCartist

Did Col. Worden ever consider flying a long duration mission, either Skylab or would he (if given the chance as a current astronaut) fly an ISS Expedition?

MCroft04

At the UACC autograph show in San Antonio 2006 you stated that you could not enjoy your upcoming mission until you finally accepted that you probably would not make it home alive. At what point in the mission did you finally accept that you were in fact going to make it back home alive?

jasonelam

What is your opinion of the future of US Manned Spaceflight, especially now that the shuttle program is ending?

Jason Elam

ASF1984

Thanks for the great questions! This morning's Astro Chat with Col. Al Worden was terrific. Check back later today for the link to the interview!

ASF1984

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for the first video in our Astro Chat series. Al Worden answered as many as he could, and here are the results.

Stay tuned for information on our next Astro Chat!

FFrench

You'll see that Michael Raynor, the actor who played Al Worden in "From the Earth to the Moon," was one of the people who asked a question. His full comment, as he posted on Facebook, had some interesting insights into the filming too:

Hi Colonel Worden, we've never met, but I had the good fortune to portray you in the Emmy Award winning HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon. Believe it or not, I had little preparation and there I was- day one- in a make-shift weightless module, as well as stationary airplane that rocked back and forth while enormous fans blew wind at me. Not the real thing for sure. How long did it take until you could identify the specific craters on the moon, let alone pronounce the names of them? I recently came across someone in Los Angeles who doesn't believe that anyone actually went to the moon. What can I say to a person like that? I thank you in advance and have tremendous respect for your accomplishments. -Michael Raynor

Fezman92

I'm watching the interview and it is very cool. Plus he answered my question. I really like this idea and am working on other questions to ask.

MCroft04

This is really cool! My question didn't get asked, but I found myself on the edge of my seat the entire time hoping my question would get asked but content listening to others questions. Let's do this again.

rjurek349

Kudos to the ASF for a great idea, and making, once again, our heroes very accessible to us and our questions.

nasamad

Well done ASF, a great idea and success, I look forward to the next installment.

spaced out

Definitely a nice initiative from the ASF.

If I'm allowed a little constructive criticism, it probably would have been better to have a little more time to gather questions. Giving less than 24 hours notice probably meant a lot of people missed the chance to post a question.

Also, the Q&A was clearly real time. Maybe the full text of the questions could be shown to the astronaut in advance next time to give them a chance to read the full context and to give them a little time to reflect on them, then in the live interview they can respond to the abridged questions in a little more depth. Just a suggestion.

Apollo Redux

Thank you Col. Worden, and to all those responsible for the broadcast. Thoroughly enjoyable!

ASF1984

Hi Spaced Out – thank you for your comments.

In the future, we plan to give plenty of advanced notice to allow space fans to ask questions. Additionally, while Col. Worden was able to review all the questions and make notes before his interview, as you can imagine, his time is precious.

Please check back soon for details on the next edition of Astro Chat – we look forward to hearing your questions!